Russia welcomes the United States' initiative to hold an international conference on the Middle East, put forward by US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice during her trip to Israel, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Rice said one day earlier in Jerusalem that Washington hopes to convene an international conference, after Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip, to promote ties between Israel and Middle East and North African countries.

The United States and Russia will sponsor the conference, which will also deal with regional programs in the Middle East, Rice added.

The idea "is consonant with the initiative President Vladimir Putin put forward during his April trip to the Middle East," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told the Itar-Tass news agency.

During a visit to Egypt in late April, Putin proposed to host an international conference on the Mideast peace in Moscow this fall, saying the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should be resolved according to UN resolutions and the roadmap peace plan.

The conference should proceed in a broad format and involve Israel, the Palestinians, the mediating quartet -- Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations -- and other regional parties, Yakovenko said.

An international forum can "assess new regional realities after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank and define settlement ways, primarily in the roadmap format and a broader context," Yakovenko said.

Source: Xinhua